This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 10-64210 filed on Feb. 27, 1998, which is incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a system for monitoring automatic door systems at remote locations.
An automatic door system includes a motor for driving a door to open and close, and a sensor for detecting whether or not any object is present near the door. Also, it includes a controller for causing the door to be opened when the sensor senses an object and for causing the door to be closed when the sensor senses no object. If the automatic door fails, a sales agent may be called to repair it. The sales agent must find a maintenance man or maintenance women (hereinafter referred to simply as maintenance man) available at that time to send him to inspect the automatic door system. It may sometimes need a relatively long time for the sales agent to find out an available maintenance man and send him to the location where the door system is installed. The maintenance man must inspect parts of the automatic door system one by one to find malfunctioning parts. To locate malfunctioning parts also takes a relatively long time.
Japanese Unexamined UM Publication No. SHO 63-83384 published on Jun. 1, 1988 discloses a system for inspecting an automatic door system to find failures and, if failures are found, notifying it to a service agent.
The system disclosed in the Japanese UM publication notifies a service agent of some abnormal states of the automatic door system, such as a state in which the door is continuously kept closed or opened. Since there are various causes for which the door is continuously opened or closed, the service agent cannot determine, from the information obtained by the system, which parts of the door system fail. Accordingly, it may take a relatively long time for a maintenance man, who is sent to repair the door system, to locate the malfunctioning part. Thus, the system of the Japanese UM publication does not much facilitate prompt repair of the automatic door system.
When an automatic door system is installed, the door opening and closing speeds and other operating parameters are set. Sometimes, the owner of the door system may request that the door opening and closing speeds set when the door is installed be changed. In such a case, too, a maintenance man is sent to the location where the door system is installed. Sending a maintenance man for making such change makes prompt maintenance impossible.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system for monitoring automatic door systems from a remote location, which can facilitate prompt repairs of the automatic door system and prompt modification of parameters of the door system.
An automatic door remote monitoring system according to the present invention is adapted to monitor a plurality of automatic door systems from a remote location, e.g. a maintenance station which monitors and maintains such plural automatic door systems. Each door system has a control unit which includes a controller and self-diagnosing means. The controller controls the operation of the door system associated therewith, and the self-diagnosing means operates, in conjunction with the controlling of the door by the controller, to inspect the door system to find out a malfunctioning or broken part thereof. When any one of the door systems fails, the self-diagnosing means of that door system sends to the maintenance station, through a communications system, failure information including door system part identifying information indicating a malfunctioning or broken part of that door system (hereinafter referred to simply as door system part identifying information). Also, the failure information includes door system identifying information identifying the door system to which each self-diagnosing means belongs.
When any of the automatic door systems fails, the self-diagnosing means of the failing door system sends the above-described failure information including door system part identifying information and door system identifying information to the maintenance station through the communications system. Thus, a person at the maintenance station can determine and advise a maintenance man which one of the automatic door systems is failing and which a part of that door system is malfunctioning or broken, at substantially the same time that part fails. Since a part which has failed has been determined, the maintenance man can prepare for the expected necessary repairs before he leaves the maintenance station, and, therefore, repairs of the door system can be done in a relatively short time.
In addition to the above-described door system part identifying information and door system identifying information, the failure information may include information of door operation relating to the diagnosis made by the self-diagnosing means. The door operation information is such information that the maintenance man can determine how the door system should be repaired, by studying the information together with the above-described door system part and door system identifying information. For example, the door operation information may be information about the door position where the door has stopped, parameter information about a door operation parameter, such as a door opening speed and a door closing speed, and maintenance information. The maintenance information may include information indicating how many times the door has been opened and closed before the failure occurred, and how many times the door system has been stopped due to external causes.
Since the self-diagnosing means sends, in addition to the door system part identifying information and the door system identifying information, the door operation information to the maintenance station, the maintenance man can know what should be repaired and how it should be repaired before he leaves the maintenance station. Accordingly, he can make enough preparations for the expected repairs and, therefore, promptly remove the failure.
The above-described failure information may be sent to a plurality of maintenance stations through a communications system. In such a case, failure information relating to failure of a door system received by one of the maintenance stations may be forwarded to another maintenance station. The failure information which may be forwarded to another maintenance station may include, for example, the door system identifying information indicating which one of the door systems fails, the door system part identifying information indicating which part of the malfunctioning door system fails, and the door operation information.
It may occur that no maintenance men are available at that maintenance station at the time when failure of one door system is notified to the maintenance station. For example, door failure information may be sent at night when all maintenance men have been home. If such information is sent to a maintenance station in daytime, it may happen that no maintenance men are available at that time. Even in such a case, a maintenance man must be sent to the door system from which the information was sent. Accordingly, the information is forwarded from the station where the information has been received but no maintenance men are available, to a maintenance station where a maintenance man is available, so that the door system can be repaired soon.
The self-diagnosing means of a door system which has failed may fail to communicate with one of a plurality of maintenance stations. In such a case, it may send the door failure information to other one of the maintenance stations.
The communications system may use, for example, public telephone lines. If the telephone line to one maintenance station is busy, the information cannot reach that station. Then, the self-diagnosing means of the malfunctioning door system sends the door failure information to another maintenance station, from which a maintenance man can be sent to the door system for repairing it.
The door operation information relating to the failure detected by the self-diagnosing means may be door-position indicating information indicating the door position where the detected failure has occurred.
If the door operation information is door-position indicating information, a maintenance man can know, even when he is still at the maintenance station, at which position the door has stopped, the fully closed position, the fully open position or an intermediate position between the fully closed and open positions. Then, the maintenance man can send a direction to a door caretaker, who takes care of that door system, to, for example, open the door by hand if the door is closed or partly open, so that passengers can pass through the door smoothly. If the door is fully opened or partly closed, the door caretaker can be directed to manually close the door to thereby prevent burglary at night.
Depending on the malfunctioning or broken part, the self-diagnosing means may make the control unit stop the door operation or change the door operating parameter, in addition to sending door failure information to a maintenance station. The door operating parameter may be, for example, a door moving speed.
Depending on the malfunctioning part, the automatic door system should be stopped. If the door is not stopped, the door system may become irreparable. In some cases, failure of some part may not require the automatic door system to be stopped. But the failure may be of such a nature that, if the door system is continuously operated with the current door operating parameter, the door system may become irreparable. For example, if the automatic door is opened and closed repetitively, without repairing some malfunctioning part, the motor which drives the door to open and close may be overheated and burnt. To avoid such situation, the self-diagnosing means sends information indicating the malfunctioning part and, in addition, causes the door to stop or modifies some operating parameter(s). This may delay deterioration of the door.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an automatic door monitoring system is adapted to monitor a plurality of automatic door systems at remote locations. Each of the door systems includes a control unit. The control unit includes a controller for controlling the respective doors, and self-diagnosing means, which operates, in conjunction with the control being provided by the controller, to detect a malfunctioning or broken part. When the automatic door system operates abnormally, the self-diagnosing means of the door system sends door system part identifying information to a maintenance station through a communications system, and then, the maintenance station sends a command to change the manner of operation of the door to the control unit of the door system to which the self-diagnosing means belongs.
The command for changing the manner of operation of the automatic door may be a command to lower the moving speed of the automatic door, a command to make the door fully opened or a command to make the door fully closed.
As described above, if the door system continues to operate, with its broken or malfunctioning part not repaired, the door system may become irreparable, depending on the broken part. In order to avoid it, a maintenance station which has received failure information sends a command to change the manner of operation of the door to the door system which has sent the failure information to that maintenance station. In response to the command, the manner of operation of the door of the malfunctioning door system is changed so that the failure cannot be worsened.
Lowering the door moving speed can prevent overheat and, hence, burned-out of the motor. If the door is brought to the fully opened or closed position, it is kept in that position or, in other words, it is kept unmoving, and, therefore, the failure does not worsen. Further, people approaching the door can know that the door is out of order since the door is kept open or closed.
An automatic door remote monitoring system according to another aspect of the invention is adapted to monitor a plurality of automatic door systems at remote locations. In accordance with instructions given by the door caretaker of an automatic door system, a maintenance station sends a command to a control unit of an automatic door of the automatic door system to change an operating parameter of the door.
When an automatic door system is installed, the operating parameters, such as the door opening and closing speed, are usually set by a maintenance man. However, the owner or caretaker of the door system may wants to change the set operating parameters later, considering the number of passengers and other factors. In such a case, the door owner can order a maintenance station to send a command to change a door operating parameter. Thus, the maintenance of the door system can be made promptly without need for sending a maintenance man to the location where the door system is installed.
In addition to the door operating parameter changing command, a command to cause the door to operate temporarily in a predetermined special manner may be sent. Seeing the door operate in the predetermined manner, the door owner can know that the required door operating parameter has been changed.
When the control unit of the door system receives the command to change the door operating parameter, it causes the door to temporarily operate in the predetermined special manner. The command for the predetermined special manner of the door operation may be sent from a maintenance station or may be stored in the automatic door system itself.
The predetermined special operation of the door takes place temporarily after the command to change the door operating parameter is received. Therefore, the reception of the door operating parameter changing command can be confirmed in the automatic door system side, and it can be understood that the change of the operating parameter of the door will be made after the predetermined special operation of the door takes place.
Each of the automatic door systems may include an object sensor for sensing an object approaching the door. The control unit changes the door operating parameter when no object is being sensed by the object sensor. In other words, the door operating parameter is changed when no passenger is near the door, whereby collision of the door with a passenger can be avoided.